Police: Suspect in Calif. deaths may be serial killer

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — A 77-year-old Nevada man accused of murdering four women whose bodies were found across Northern California over two decades was a professional photographer who often traveled the country for work and may have killed in other states, investigators said Tuesday.

Joseph Naso of Reno, Nev., was being held on suspicion of murders in Marin, Contra Costa and Yuba counties dating from 1977 to 1994.

He was arrested in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., late Monday after being released from jail, where he was serving time on an unrelated probation violation. Authorities said Naso was on probation for a 2009 grocery store theft in California when a random search of his Reno home last April turned up guns and ammunition.

The search also uncovered evidence that helped link him to the Northern California cold cases, said Nevada authorities.

“We think there are others out there we haven’t discovered yet,” Chris Perry, acting director of the Nevada Department of Public Safety, told reporters Tuesday. “Typically when you are talking about a person who has killed more than once, this doesn’t stop. This is a criminal who has a history to 1955.”

Naso was being held without bail Tuesday in Marin County. Through guards, he declined a request from The Associated Press for a jailhouse interview.

Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian obtained permission from other jurisdictions to try all four cases. He said he planned to seek the death penalty against Naso.